Kris and Chelsea's Wedding

Kris and Chelsea (Mary's brother and his bride) were married and sealed to one another on March 5th in the Mt. Timpanogas Temple for our church. I got to be his escort and witness for the wedding, which was a neat opportunity for me. I enjoyed spending some solo time with Kris as he got ready for his sealing and afterward as his bride finished getting ready after the sealing to leave the temple. They both looked so great. The night before, we had a gathering at her folks house and had some good grub and got to meet her family for the first time, which was fun. Chelsea has some fun sibs and sibs-in-law. Kris and Chelsea got married in the morning. The sealer who performed their marriage did an excellent job and it was a beautiful sealing ordinance. Below are some pics outside the temple.

Here they are as they emerge from the temple... what a beautiful couple!

Here is a pic of all the family just celebrating. I tried to get more pics from Chelsea's FB account but they would publish on here as really small. I'm sure there's a way to avoid that, but I don't know it.

Jane and I, what a cute li'l girl!

When we woke up the morning of the wedding and were in a hurry, this is what we found on the ground outside our friends' home. Fortunately, as you can tell from the pics above, the snow didn't last and the sun was out and shiny. It was still pretty cold and windy though!

It was a really long and busy day. After the wedding and pics we went to Kris' apartment and spent some down time with the kids while Mary, her folks, and sibs got ready for the luncheon for some of the family and friends that we hosted. Mary and her sister did an amazing job planning and preparing for this event and, with some much needed help, it turned out wonderful. I'm going to let Mary post about that.

Kristopher is Engaged!

Mary should be doing this post, but I'll do it. Mary's youngest brother got engaged two weeks ago. We're really excited for him and look forward to getting to know Chelsea more. On their way back down to UT from WA after Thanksgiving they stopped in and stayed with us for a day. We enjoyed playing with them and the kids love their time with their Uncle Kris, who is our most frequent family visitor. Over the years, Kris has brought a number of girls around for family holidays, so it resonated with me when I heard that Jenny's husband asked her if he "needed to remember this ones name?" Sounds like Chelsea is the one that we are supposed to remember and really invest time in getting to know her. They are getting married on March 5th and we look forward to it! Congrats to Kris!

Getting engaged is such an exciting time, but it's also very stressful. I remember thinking that a lot of things would be easier once we were engaged/married... it seemed to make sense to me. But, as Kristopher is sadly learning very quickly, things often get complicated, stressful and a little overwhelming, though it is still exciting to consider the prospect of getting married to someone you love.

[Beware giving me a digital image you don't want to see on my blog!]

Trip to Sand Dunes II

While some more family was in town for the weekend for Jane's baby blessing we made a trip out to the Sand Dunes in Bruneau again last Saturday (sorry if this is very repetitive, but there's not that much to do out here and the dunes are really fun!). It was a little more fun this time since there were more kids than just Sarah and Nathan which allowed for more fun moments and Sarah and Nathan were a little more excited about it and confident on the hills then they were last time. The weather was great... not much sun and just a few brief sprinkles. Also, Mary came along with Jane this time which also made it fun to be out there as a family. Those that came up for the weekend and made the trip out to the Dunes with our family were my parents; my brother (Robb) and his two girls: Hailey and Emma; and Mary's cool bro Kristopher. Kris made the trek up to the top of the really high dunes behind the lake and we just enjoyed snacks and then enjoyed one of the kid-sized dunes. Here are a bunch of pics, not in any particular order:

Here is a good fun pic of our little family of five at the base of the dunes the kids enjoyed playing on.
Here is my brother, Robb, and his two girls, Hailey and Emma.
Here is a close-up of little Jane fast asleep against Daddy's chest... what a sweetie!
Kris giving Nathan a ride up the dunes, it's so great to have bachelor uncles!
Here is a pic of Jane and I up on the top of the dune... and yes, Jane is comfortable!

Sarah took a fall while playing near the lake and skinned her knee which was the cause of much anguish and need of assistance and pity. Fortunately, she recovered and had a blast with her cousins on the dunes... much more active and confident then she was last time, which was great for everyone!
My wonderful mother... it was so great to have her here and enjoy some more time with her! Thanks so much for coming Mom!
My hip Dad! It was great to have him with us as well and I'm so glad that he made the trip also! Thanks so much for coming Dad!
Nathan with Uncle Kris in the background
Emma on her Daddy's lap for a free trip to the top!

A cute close-up of Sarah with Emma in the background at the bottom
Me and Jane (How do you like the beard? I shaved it the next morning so this is as good and scraggly as it gets!)

Opa giving Nathan a lift
Nathan down by the lake... Nice pic Mary!

Ode to Uncles

I don't know what it is about Uncles that is so cool for my kiddos. I think that a big part of it is that for most of Sarah's life she's had four bachelor Uncles, two on each side of our family. Braden got married last year so my brother Jordan is the special uncle on my side of the family. Anyway, I was looking through some pictures on our computer and started seeing some great pictures that I wanted to post regarding my brothers and brothers-in-law with my kiddos. While we lived with my parents during grad school (about 18 months), both Jordan and Braden lived there for a good portion of that time. So Sarah, particularly, feels really close to Uncle Jordan and just the other day completely out of the blue she said "I want to call Uncle Jordan" so we did. Uncle Kris has been our most frequent family visitor since we've been in Idaho, which has meant a lot to us and our kids. Anywa, here are some samples. They are not in any particular order, just randomly posted as I find them on the computer. One of my favorite parts about all of these are some of the "awkward Uncle holds" when uncles that are not parents try to hold an infant. There are some good demonstrations of this below!

This is the most current "Uncle" pic, from just last weekend when Mary and the kids went down to Utah for the weekend. This was at Braden and Amanda's house in Provo and Uncle Kris came by to spend some time with his sister and his niece and nephew. I don't think that Kris got his afternoon nap on that day. Kris is a pretty handsome kid, huh! If you know of any eligible young ladies in the Provo area, just let me know and I'll forward the info... not that Kris is in need of a date or anything... and he usually does quite well on his own... just not that well yet.

Here is Uncle Michael, Mary's oldest brother. Seriously, you have to be an Uncle to dress up in this kind of outfit when: 1) you're an adult; 2) it's NOT Halloween; and 3) There is a camera around. Nice work Uncle Mike! If you ever want to hear a hilarious story regarding Mary and the above Famed Hughes Frog Costume, just ask! In looking through our pics I was disappointed to not find any of Uncle Mike with our kids, though I have plenty with his other nephews. Then I realized that he hasn't been around Nathan much and he likes to wrestle and play roughly with my nephews, so Sarah has largely opted not to be a part of their rough housing. Mike is a great uncle though, when he's awake that is.

We invited Uncle Kris up to our place (from Provo) for his birthday in January. He came and didn't get much sleep but I hope that he had fun being with family on his birthday. Here he is letting Sarah help him with his candles on his birthday cake.

Here is Uncle Kris letting Nathan look at one of his birthday presents in January.

Here is Uncle Jordan holding Nathan last November when we were at Robb and Heather's for Carson's baby blessing. They're just watching college football together... hopefully the first of many opportunities!

Here is Uncle Kris with Nathan and Mary. Mary and I have done annual hikes with our siblings and whenever Kris has gone with his two sisters, he has been the packhorse because every year (three years running now) one of his sisters has had an infant and the other one has been pregnant so he has literally been a packhorse! Luckily, Uncle Mike joined them last year so he had some help. Mary reports that Kris has been a trooper despite the weight he has to take with him.
Uncle Kris reading to Sarah, Jacob and Gideon at Nanu and Bumpa's house in Leavenworth.

Uncle Kris drove over (from E. WA) for Sarah's 2nd birthday party. She was pretty happy to have her Uncle there, as you can tell!

Uncle Jordan reading a book to Sarah at Oma and Opa's house.

Uncle Braden and Sarah sharing a candy cane and a Winnie-the-Pooh story book at Oma and Opa's house.

Uncle Jordan and Sarah came up with this game where Sarah would sit at the top of the stairs and Jordan at the bottom and she would throw the balls down to him and he would carefully toss them back up. Sarah (and later Nathan) really enjoyed this game and enjoyed learning it from her Uncle Jordan at Oma and Opa's house.
"Sure Sarah, go ahead an play with my cell phone/PDA!" Uncle Jordan seems to be having an enlightening conversation with Mother Mary (Ruby) while Joseph (Sarah) checks out the latest technology. This may be the last sighting of Jordan's stylus for his phone. Here is one of those clearly awkward Uncle holding moments as demonstrated by Uncle Braden.
Sorry Uncle Jordan, Uncles aren't allowed to sleep when they're on Uncle duty!

Uncle Jordan seems like a pretty proud Uncle to Mary, Joseph and an Angel on Christmas Eve.

I'm sure Uncle Kris never foresaw this picture on the World-Wide-Web. I think Nathan is trying to imitate Kris in this picture. Sorry Kris, I just couldn't leave this one out ;*P
Uncle Jordan with Nathan as an infant... another awkward Uncle hold demonstrated by Jordan.
Uncle Kris with Nathan as a newborn in the hospital. It's great when Uncles come and visit in the hospital because they are very excited, but they don't really know what to do with themselves besides awkwardly hold the baby, pose for a picture and then try to stand off to the side with their hands in their pockets while they involuntarily listen to conversations about things they want to know nothing about and would prefer not to hear but they don't feel like they can just excuse themselves politely.

This is Uncle Braden returning from his mission in Korea. Sarah was really excited about seeing him at the airport and enjoyed making signs for him. Sarah and Nathan's great-grandmother is in the background. Even though none of my kids are in this pic, I wanted to include it because I liked it.

Last winter (06-07) when it snowed like crazy we had enough snow to go out and enjoy it and Uncle Jordan (back left) and Uncle Braden (back right) were right out there building a snowman at Sarah's command. Honestly, they did most of the work and followed just about every directive from Sarah.